Who Are You Working For?

When you're looking for a job, what are your priorities? Money*? Agency size? Client roster? I'd suggest that an important one should be the philosophy of the leaders of the company. First, find out who the leaders are. A good place to start is at the top. Here's a quote from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh:

I think of myself less as a leader, and more of being almost an architect of an environment that enables employees to come up with their own ideas, and where employees can grow the culture and evolve it over time, so it’s not me having a vision of “This is our culture.”

Maybe an analogy is, if you think of the employees and culture as plants growing, I’m not trying to be the biggest plant for them to aspire to. I’m more trying to architect the greenhouse where they can all flourish and grow.

That's a pretty rad vision for the culture of the company. Here's the full interview.

*When you're looking for your first job, money should be near the bottom of your list. I know this can sound crazy, especially when you're trying to pay for rent and student loans, but the money will come later if you focus on the other things. More on that later.